Kazuto Okawa, who performs as LLLL (pronounced "four-el"), has spent the past two years since releasing his sophomore album, "Faithful," getting in touch with his personal side.
The electronic musician, who spent 10 years in Canada, says when he came back to Tokyo, he was ...

Despite his elusive online persona, Kazuto Okawa, aka LLLL (pronounced "four-el"), is strikingly open and honest about his views in person. Speaking in a small Koenji cafe, he discusses his sophomore album, "Faithful," released this week via Tokyo label Progressive Form, with a critical ...

KiWi "Promise" (Zoom Lens)
The latest release from high-profile netlabel Zoom Lens, "Promise" is a collaboration between Tokyo-based Azupubschool and Coris from Osaka — two young producers who are no strangers to the netlabel scene. The two first worked together when Azu remixed "Jikuu no ...

DJ Obake "H" (Zoom Lens)
To the uninitiated, DJ Obake's latest album must sound like an intercepted transmission from another dimension, a kaleidoscopic blend of disparate elements — traces of Yasutaka Nakata's synth-pop, shoegaze and DJ Shadow chief among them — that cohere to form ...

Over the past two decades, Japanese pop culture has made major inroads abroad, thanks mainly to interest in video games and anime.
Interest in those two areas has never really translated into much love for J-pop in the West, but recent acts such as Babymetal ...

Tokyo producer Yoshino Yoshikawa has often described his work as "ultrapop," and for a while that term made perfect sense. Yoshikawa created busy, buzzing songs in the mold of Yasutaka Nakata. With names such as "Kawaii Candy," they were a colorful rush of synthesizers ...